Tennis players often store and retrieve tennis balls from their pockets, but the awkward feeling and appearance makes this undesirable. Containers have been proposed for mounting at the waist of the player, which include tubes with open ends through which the ball can pass, and with resilient stops at the ends to prevent the ball from falling out. The devices generally have to be worn at the front of the player to enable him to locate the ball at the open end of the tube. A holder positioned in front of the player is somewhat "in the way" in that the player's arm may brush against the holder during play, and because the presence of a holder in front of a person can be distracting. A tennis ball holder that could be mounted at the rear of a person's waist, and which permitted the person to easily locate portions of the holder through which a tennis ball can be inserted for storage and removed for play, and which was of simple and rugged design to assure high reliability, would be of considerable value.